This invention relates to a unique gear to differential attachment configuration for a drive axle.
Drive axles include carriers with differential gear assemblies to prevent wheel skid during turning maneuvers. When a vehicle travels along a straight-line path, both sets of wheels on a drive axle will turn at basically the same speed. During a turning maneuver however, the wheels on the outside of the turn must travel a greater distance than the wheels on the inside of the turn, which means that the wheels on the outside of the turn must rotate at a faster speed than the wheels on the inside of the turn. A differential gear assembly is required to allow for this difference in wheel speed.
Traditionally, a drive axle carrier includes a ring and pinion gear assembly that is operably coupled to the differential assembly. The pinion gear is operably coupled to a driving input shaft and is in meshing engagement with the driven ring gear. The differential assembly includes a first differential case half, a second differential case half, and a differential gear set. Traditionally, the ring gear is bolted to one of the case halves to define a first bolted joint, and the first and second case halves are bolted together to define a second bolted joint.
This traditional ring gear and differential case configuration is expensive to manufacture and difficult to assemble. Also, with the increased demand by users to provide more robust designs within the same packaging space, these traditional configurations do not provide room to make critical components more robust within the existing package.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a carrier with a differential assembly that includes improved assembly packaging to allow a more robust component configuration for desired components. Further, it is desirable to provide a simplified carrier configuration that reduces the overall number of required components and is less expensive to manufacture, as well as overcoming the other deficiencies in the art outlined above.